Financial news - stock market weekend, Japanese yen, artificial intelligence, company news

• Trading volume and activity in Asia on Monday will be among the weakest this year due to public holidays in the US and UK, but markets are open.

• With the world's two largest trading hubs, London and New York, closed, yen traders may be ready to intervene. The last two alleged bouts of yen buying in Japan recently occurred during extremely illiquid hours of the world day, one of which occurred on May 1, when markets in many countries were closed. The dollar is back up at 157.00 yen and the latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission shows that after three weeks of shorting the yen, speculators are now pouncing on them again.

• Norwegian Petroleum Fund to vote against Exxon Mobil over shareholder rights concerns - WSJ.

• WWDC will be held in California on June 10 (AAPL). At WWDC, Tim Cook will show off a ton of AI capabilities, as well as iOS 18, which will be “the biggest update in iPhone history.” In addition, the company must introduce a separate App Store for AI products.

• JPMorgan: Approval of Ether ETF and wider acceptance of cryptocurrency is a political move ahead of US elections. This will happen much earlier than November.

• Boeing received a $7.5 billion contract from the US Air Force

• Elon Musk’s SpaceX has initiated discussions on selling its existing shares at a price that could value the company at about $200 billion - Bloomberg

• Luciano Benetton, co-founder of the clothing brand, announced that he would step down as chairman of the board. He said in an interview published on Saturday in the Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera. Benetton blamed the current management for the €100 million in losses he discovered last year.

• Eli Lilly will spend $5.3 billion to produce new drugs Mounjaro, Zepbound. Expenditures to expand the Indiana facility, along with a previous $3.7 billion investment, represent the largest manufacturing investment in the company's history.

• American confectionery giant Mondelēz was accused of artificially inflating prices. The European Commission fined the company 337.5 million euros.

• The price of Brent oil fell below $81 for the first time since February 15. Against the backdrop of the fact that the market “no longer believes” in the continuation of the conflict in the Middle East

• Alibaba is betting on AI to fuel cloud growth as it expands globally to catch up with US tech giants.

• The US admits to being heavily in debt. US Federal Reserve Chairman Powell said that the country's public debt is growing faster than its economy. In his opinion, future generations will pay for this.
In January 2024, the US national debt exceeded $34 trillion and it is still unclear how to repay it.

• Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI is close to a $6 billion round – FT. One of the investors who participated in the round noted that the head of Tesla is “several hundred million dollars” short of this goal.

• Alphabet's Google will take a $350 million minority stake in Flipkart.
Which is backed by Walmart, valuing the Indian e-commerce firm at $37 billion, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

• Nvidia's most advanced AI chip, which the company developed for the Chinese market, got off to a bad start. The oversupply is pushing its price lower than a rival chip from Chinese tech giant Huawei, according to people familiar with the matter.

• Saudi Arabia is planning a multi-billion dollar sale of shares in energy giant Aramco as early as June. It would be one of the largest stock deals in the region, two people familiar with the matter said. One of them said the proposal could raise about $10 billion. Preparations are ongoing and details could still change, the sources told Reuters.

• The International Energy Agency predicts that global electricity consumption for cryptocurrencies, data centers and AI could double by 2026.
To this end, Oklo is committed to creating clean energy through fission reactors and has enlisted the help of OpenAI founder Sam Altman. Oklo CEO Jake DeWitte joins Catalysts to discuss the company's operations and the energy landscape in the age of artificial intelligence.

• The typical summer slowdown in US stock markets may be more pronounced this year due to inflationary fluctuations and early presidential debates. Which could influence the rally that has pushed the S&P 500 to record highs in recent months.

• Traders are roughly evenly divided on whether the central bank will cut rates at its September meeting, according to CME FedWatch.
That's a significant shift from a few days ago, when only about a third of those surveyed expected the Fed to keep rates unchanged at its first meeting in the fall. Goldman Sachs on Friday said it no longer expected the Fed to make its first rate cut in July, instead suggesting September was most likely.

• The AI ​​theme remains a driver of the stock market.